Volunteering and giving back have always been part of Dr. Sitapara’s life. He served as part of the emergency medical team at the NYC marathon this past November and shares “it is one of the largest mass injury events of the year, where hundreds of people are treated for mostly sprains, dehydration and other non-life threatening injuries.” While undergrad at The George Washington University he served as President of the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), and Co-President of the Indian Students Association (ISA), in addition to his work as an EMT. While at MUA he was a new student mentor throughout his four years of medical school.

When looking to go to medical school he says "I did my research and read about the great success of MUA grads, and the fact that the island was beautiful and conducive to studying really helped my decision making process. I read that all that you need and want is there, but with minimal distractions, so I decided this was the right environment for me. My Basic Science courses were initially tough, and really required a whole new take on studying. What was great about MUA was that the professors knew that this was an adjustment, and worked with us to help develop good study habits. This is the beauty of a smaller medical school environment like MUA.”

Kishan loved the clinical experience, mainly because it allowed him to explore different areas of interest, and gave him the flexibility in his electives to go where his interests took him. Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation was the field he chose. “Growing up I decided if I couldn’t play in the NBA then I would learn to treat those athletes by becoming a PM&R doctor. I love this field because it focuses on the functionality of the body. We often say in the field, that it isn’t only about adding years to your patient’s life but about adding life to their years”.

Matching into his first choice in Prelim Internal Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center, he was selected “Intern of the Year” by his colleagues. He now has an advanced position in his area of passion, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Montefiore, and has his eye on a possible fellowship in interventional pain management. Says Dr. Sitapara,"it is truly rewarding to be able to change someone’s scope of pain."

Current LSU-Shreveport Radiology Resident Zakious Tracey was a scholar-athlete who played football, volleyball and wrestling all 4 years while in high school. He completed his pre-med work at Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University and went on to serve as a Respiratory Therapist in the pediatric emergency department at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital for 2 years prior to starting medical school. He readily admits, he was nervous when he arrived at MUA, but quickly made some life-long friends (affectionately calling each other now “the wolf pack”) in his first term.

“In our study group we really helped each other study while everybody brought something different to the table. The weather was beautiful and on the weekends, we would go the beach and eat together and study into the late evening, with the Atlantic Ocean as our backdrop.” Zakious excelled in his Basic Sciences at MUA and became a TA for his gross anatomy, human physiology, microbiology and neuroscience courses.

“The teachers were very knowledgeable, and they know if you have pre-read the materials. They really cared and check to make sure that you are understanding all that they are teaching. That’s really the beauty of the small class size. To be honest, it also helped build my self-study habits by reading ahead. The professors make you feel that you matter and is important when they personally ask you a question. You definitely are rewarded for your hard work”.

Zakious did most of his clinical rotations in Brooklyn (originally from Dallas, Texas and grew up in Hollywood, Florida he had never seen snow!).  While doing clinical rotations in the heart of New York City, he was exposed to a variety of diseases and pathology that provided great learning. He states, “while my core rotations prepared me, it was my electives that defined me”. 

Among his many elective rotations, ranging from cardiology to critical care, nephrology and infectious diseases it was his radiology rotation at LSU that won him over for his choice in residency. Once his elective rotation in radiology was completed, he was scheduled for an interview at LSU for a residency position. MUA, knowing his desire to match there, helped secured an extra one-week “2nd look” interventional radiology rotation for him back at LSU-S, where he was able to work directly with the Radiology Residency Program Director and Chairman which contributed to him matching into his dream residency. “I really couldn’t imagine any other school doing this. I had already completed all required clinical rotations. It really just wouldn’t happen at one of the very big schools, where you really are just a number”.

When not scrubbing into OR cases at the hospital, MUA 2017 graduate Sep Karimi likes to read biographies to “broaden his vision on humanity”, and watch films that “portray the essence of the human connection”. A deep interest in the personal condition, and a person’s physical wellbeing underlies his life’s work, both as a kinesiology undergrad at York University in Toronto and now as a PGY-1 General Surgery resident at Waterbury Hospital in Ct.

Upon graduation from York University, Sep chose to enroll in the  Pre-Med program at MUA to complete his science requirements, missing the necessary organic chemistry and recommended english requirements for Med 1. “I loved the Pre-Med program. It really helped me transition to Med 1 seamlessly. We played soccer and tennis; we had study groups and I learned so much. We were  so close to the Dean at MUA who really helped guide us. All the resources were there for you. It was so great”.

When I did my surgery rotation at Chabert Medical Center I fell in love with it, so from there I picked my electives wisely. I picked out places where I could potentially match, doing an infectious disease rotation, a cardiology rotation and a vascular surgery rotation at three different hospitals. I got several letters of recommendation, and then came to a general surgery rotation at Waterbury.” Sep knew this was his big chance to make an impression and have the chance for a general surgery match, and he put his all in it. A general surgery match is a difficult feat for any medical student, so impressing the attending physicians and others is paramount. “I had 6 weeks to shine and impress these guys, and show them that I really wanted to be here. I showed them I was interested, and after six weeks I was already going to Christmas parties with the team!” 

 Sep’s hard work payed off and he  matched into his number one spot, as a categorical general surgery resident at Waterbury Hospital. He operates frequently at Hartford Hospital, the biggest trauma center in New England.

“My goal is to do cancer surgery, perhaps of the colon and pancreas. There are so many advances now, with minimally invasive  and intraabdominal cancer surgeries.” 

In the Emergency Room at Chabert Medical Center Joseph Garcia stood out among his peers. Says Matthew James, emergency room physician's assistant , who worked alongside him,  “ Joseph was a phenomenal student to work along side with here at Chabert. His love for medicine and patient care was what I noticed most. His persistence and resilience are two of his strongest characteristics.” Matthew felt so strongly about Joseph and his clinical work that he personally reached out to MUA to tell the school what he had seen.

Honored and humbled by the accolade, Joseph shares “ I worked as an emergency room technician while in college, and met some med students who were doing their clinicals. They told me about MUA, so I applied, was accepted and hopped on a plane and went! So glad I did. Professors were great and taught you exactly what you needed to know. Importantly they were very accessible. We had small classes which I really liked. I talked with my friends at other Caribbean medical schools and their classes were massive, and they hated it. The said they would sit in an auditorium and just get lectured at. It was a case of you either got it or you didn’t.”

While at MUA, Joseph found time to participate in the Peer Mentoring Program, an integral part of the MUA experience for first semester students. “My clinical experience was great. I spent most of my  time in Louisiana at Chabert, and then went to Brooklyn for rotations. Among other things this rotation taught me to ride the subway! I did three electives in family practice, internal medicine (cardiology and nephrology) and finished in the ICU.  Says Joseph, “ I found myself easily distracted in undergrad at Louisiana State. For me therefore MUA is an ideal medical school. It is a great place to go, free from distractions, and really hunker down. I basically lived in the library there”.

A May 2018 grad of Medical University of the Americas, Joseph is currently a resident in Family Medicine at Louisiana State University in Alexandria, La. Following residency, he plans to pursue a fellowship in Sports Medicine.  

As a dual citizen with the United States and Italy,  Peter is passionate about Italian literature and is proficient in Italian. He is also a member of Phi Sigma Iota, the International Foreign Language Honor Society. It was while working on his masters in Italian literature at Rutgers that he began volunteering on the side in his dad's gastroenterology office,  shadowing doctors in the procedures of endoscopies and colonoscopies. He also shadowed emergency medicine residents and began to develop an interest in the fast paced lifestyle. He began to really enjoy the work, and soon came to realize that rather than becoming an Italian literature professor it was the field of medicine that he wanted to pursue.

"I didn't do that well in the first semester at MUA, and it took me that time to really learn how to study. Come third semester though, I was getting A’s and really taking advantage of all the resources that MUA offers the students." Peter went on to become a TA in both microbiology and pharmacology at MUA, and Class VP in his 4th semester.

It was after an interview at Henry Ford Allegiance Health in Jackson, MI that he knew where he wanted to match. "I enjoyed the program so much that I emailed the Program Director there and asked to do a second-look. I ended up having three shifts with the Program Director which definitely helped me match. It was my first choice for emergency medicine; it's a 60 bed level 2 trauma center and I really like the diverse amount of pathology that I was seeing."

Emergency medicine is a relatively new specialty, and has become a popular residency choice recently for the lifestyle it affords. "You go in and you work non-stop for 10-11 hour shifts, and then you go home and you are totally off. People who do EM can’t do anything else. They like the acuity of the patients and the fast paced environment." It makes good sense that this competitive ice-hockey player , and USA Hockey certified referee would strive to find this same adrenaline rush in medicine.

"I advise students to be determined, work hard, and know that you will have bad days. It's ok, just be determined and find a good study group!"

Chicago Area Health and Medical Careers Program (CAHMCP) is based in Chicago, and offers a culturally sensitive approach to educating and empowering young men and women from underserved and disadvantaged populations. It was in this program, tutoring young men and women in chemistry and biology in preparation for the MCATS, that Richard Rousseau had a light bulb moment. He was also working at a pharmacy at the same time he was teaching immersive science classes at CAHMCP, so it all seemed to come together for him with the realization that he wanted to go to medical school himself.

I heard good things about MUA, so applied and in 2 months I was on my way to Nevis. Everything is very straight forward on the island, and the teachers are really accessible. I lived in an apartment complex that also had upper class students who were also incredibly helpful.

I was a bit of an older student, but never found this to be an issue. I felt very comfortable on the island: it's so pretty. My family is from Haiti so I felt right at home with the island life and culture.

When I went on to do my clinicals, most of which I did at one hospital in Louisiana, I really loved the fact that I could be so hands on with the patients. We were referred to as "student-doctors" and we didn’t just stand behind the attending resident and watch them... we actually got right in there and did all the work. In my 4th year I did a rotation in anesthesiology and from there I knew that was the area I wanted to practice in. I guess I impressed them enough in this rotation because they ended up hiring me, and it was my first choice.

For students looking at medical school, I tell them for the first 2 years ask a ton of questions about anything, of everyone! Fellow students, teachers and keep those lines of communication open. You will find that people are really willing to help you. Also enjoy it while you are in medical school, because believe it or not it goes really fast. No question about it MUA really prepared me. From doing didactics and clinical skills training on the island I found that when I went on to clinicals I really knew what I was doing. The foundation that MUA gives you is very strong.

As a  teaching assistant in histology, neurology and microbiology at MUA, a volunteer at the Centre for Animal Rehabilitation on Nevis, Premier of Nevis Award recipient, and a Clinical Dean Award recipient,  Christopher Smith made every moment count while at Medical University of the Americas. Thrilled to come to MUA in January 2014, he noted, "I was waiting tables and bartending before MUA gave me the opportunity to fulfill my lifelong dream and attend medical school". He was grateful for the newfound sense of purpose that the school gave him. "Coming to MUA provided me with a new foundation of hope for myself and my future. Apart from my own intrinsic drive, watching dedicated classmates around me working so hard also really helped motivate me to want to be the best I could be. It truly had a hugely positive effect on me."

"The professors were always available, and really knew what they were teaching really well. I was frequently probing them for more information, and I eventually fell in love with the learning process. My Neuroscience teachers, in particular, were willing to talk with me for hours on end, and I began to learn of my passion for neurology in these long engaging conversations and lectures. My clinical work was spent mostly at a teaching hospital in Louisiana and it is one of the best programs for training. The learning style is incredible: each day you are in there learning through your hands as well as through didactics."

"Working with MUA, I got the opportunity to do a Neurology elective rotation at LSU in New Orleans in my 4th year. I really loved working with the residents, staff, and enjoyed the overall environment. Where you choose to do your electives is critically important. I recommend to students that they work on getting an elective rotation at the program that they want to match into. This was where I wanted to match, and I did." Christopher is thinking about a possible fellowships in one of two areas of neurology, either Neurophysiology or Neurocritical Care (such as working with patients with life-threatening neurologic injuries/conditions).

Working in downtown New Orleans has been an added bonus for this bilingual doctor fluent in both French and English.

Arber Frakulli is a third year med student at Medical University of the Americas, who has been blogging about his medical experience along the way. He calls his blog “Arber Frakulli @MUA”. Click here to see his beautiful photos taken while doing his Basic Sciences on the island of Nevis.

https://arberfrakullimed.wordpress.com/pictures-from-nevis

Click here to read his research paper (his RLRA) entitled “Correlation between the temperature of e-cigarette coils and the levels of carbonyl toxicant formation due to the thermal decomposition of propylene glycol and glycerol solvents found in e-liquids”

https://arberfrakullimed.wordpress.com/research

1) How valuable is the Pre-Med program in preparing you for the MD 1 program at MUA? 

The Pre-med program was a valuable experience for me as it really prepared me for what's to come in the medical program.  I initially had applied for the medical program at first, but with my undergraduate degree, I was missing several core credits that would’ve required me a min. of a year to complete. The pre-med program is an intensive 8 month (or 2 semesters) program that allows you to complete all required courses within that time frame and successfully apply for the medical program. The faculty in the pre-med program analyzes the lectures they provide in the MD1 class and teaches you exactly what you need to know in order to prepare you for the future semester. The materials taught in premed have helped me in classes for the first two semesters of the basic science program. 

It was also a great way to familiarize yourself with the island life as well as forming new study habits and getting used to going back to school (for those who have been out of school for a while).

2) Please tell us a bit about how the MUA Mentors program at MUA works? Did you have a mentor when you came to MUA and were they helpful?

The MUA mentors program is a way for new students to get in contact with an upper med student who has already spent a semester on the island. The program is run by students and they normally try to assign you to a mentor who comes from a similar background (in terms of undergrad, city, etc) All incoming students are assigned a mentor and their contact information so by the time you start your new journey at MUA, you’ve already made a friend/advisor/mentor who can provide you with information and advice as someone who has gone through the same experience.  The program 

I had a mentor assigned to me a week before arriving on the island; the mentor had the same educational background (BScN) as me and we came from the same country (Canada) so it was extremely helpful when I asked her about course materials in comparison to what we’ve been taught before (in undergrad), and asking about processes in financial aid, banking, etc. 

3) How did you get chosen to be a TA, and what is that like?

The TAs are available to students for the Med program; The TAs are comprised of students from MED2-MED5. Students are chosen to be a TA by the course director at the end of the semester; the requirements are generally students who have received an A in the course, or have done extremely well throughout the semester and excelled in the course shelf exam. Normally a max. of 4 students are chosen per course. TA sessions occur once a week and it allows the students to come for an hour or two to review the past week’s material with the TA. For students who are either afraid to speak to their professor or haven’t had the chance to speak to them during office hours, or who just needed clarification in class materials will come to these sessions and I provide them with either material to help them understand better or hold review sessions to cover high-yield materials before exams. The students are also encouraged to e-mail us TAs if they require more help than what was provided in the session. 

Being a TA has allowed me to feel more comfortable with public speaking as well as a review of previous class materials so it has helped me maintain my knowledge more than what I would’ve retained without becoming a TA. Since not everybody gets chosen to become a TA it’s meaningful when your professors trust that you can teach the course material to the new students and validates the hard work you’ve put in during the semester. Time management skills are needed because you are taking several hours out of your week to prepare for your TA sessions as well as teaching it; for some students, they decline to be TAs due to the time constraints. 

For pre-med students there are no TAs; the school has a student-run tutoring program where students from both premed and the med program can request for a private tutor in their respective courses. 

*( Private tutors are based on a min. GPA for that course. i’m not a tutor so I can’t speak on the requirements to be a tutor; however I’ve been told tutors must need a 3.0grade in that course to tutor other students)

4) What is your “typical day” like at MUA?

My typical weekday involves waking up at 7 and get ready to head over to school where the days start at 8 and normally ends around 3 or 4 pm. From 8-12 we cover materials from physiology/ pharmacology/ pathology, have lunch for an hour and then have a 2 hour class on Clinical skills. Once I get home, I try to take an hour off to myself and then review the day's material. There are no visits to the beach (despite the stereotype of a Caribbean life) but I do try and go out for a run or walk around my neighborhood to clear my head. 

Newly minted doctors take the Hippocratic Oath pledging to “do no harm,” but what if the harm they cause results not from the failure to correctly apply what they learned in medical school but from racially-based ideas they learned there, or from racial stereotypes formed long before they ever started their studies?

These and other questions about how race factors into the delivery of healthcare were the focus of a recent opinion piece in The New York Times.

Racial categories—such Negroid, Caucasoid or Mongoloid—have a long history both in academic use and popular discourse. In Biology, the article in the Times notes, race is roughly analogous to the idea of subspecies. And there is no shortage of examples of how race has been used in medicine, often with negative results:

•  Sickle cell anemia was labeled a “black” disease, but in fact it afflicts many people who would be considered “white.”
• African-Americans are widely considered to be more susceptible to kidney disease. But in fact, not all African-Americans carry the gene variants that cause kidney problems.
• And there is a substantial body of research indicating that blacks and other minorities are less likely than whites to receive treatment for pain.
• Pointing to these and other examples, many argue that the concept of race in healthcare should be discarded, saying it is too unwieldy, too imprecise and has too much baggage to be useful anymore.  And it can lead to bad medicine, such as failure to do the appropriate screening for sickle cell among white populations. Or incorrectly discarding kidneys provided to donor programs by African-Americans. Instead, critics say it’s time to focus on the genes important to whatever medical puzzle is being addressed — an approach often called “precision” or “personalized” medicine.

But others say that’s not practical and point to cases such as

Prostate cancer: African-Americans have a higher risk than whites and the test for it, which looks at prostate-specific antigen, is known to yield many false positives. In this instance, though race might be a crude marker, some argue it’s still a usable one for determining how care should be provided.

Hypertension: African-Americans suffer from high blood pressure more often than whites do. Yet Africans in Africa don’t generally have high blood pressure leading to suggestions that experiencing racism is what’s raising blood pressure.

This brief summary just scratches of this debate and how it affects how medicine is both taught and administered. Read the full piece from The New York Times here.

For a vivid picture of the diverse world of healthcare today, read the recently published opinion piece in The New York Times by famed NBC newscaster Tom Brokaw.

For years one of the most prominent journalists in America as the anchor of the NBC Nightly News, Brokaw described today’s typical, big city hospital as “a universe of scientific genius and selfless compassion populated by what seems to be the most diverse population in the country.”

Brokaw, who calls himself an “active pilgrim” in the medical world (having sought treatment for cancer, kidney stones carrier and other ailments) reflected on his experiences with spinal surgeons of Russian origin, Ecuadorean eye specialists, Chinese imaging experts, Kazakh physical therapists, East Indian oncologists and an orthopedist from Bologna with whom he traded New York Italian restaurant recommendations.

And the diversity extends beyond big cities. The piece also looks at the challenges of rural hospitals and how these communities benefit from physicians of varying backgrounds—including “homegrown physicians” who came to medicine with unique perspectives.

Read the entire piece here.

Photo Credit: Ian G. Holyoak/Nevis Tourism Authority

CNN just came out with its list of the 18 Best Places to Visit in 2018 and Nevis is No. 5.

According to CNN “even people who think they've seen-one-seen-'em-all when it comes to Caribbean islands will look in awe at the quieter, simpler, more connected with nature way of life here.”

Noting that Nevis was spared hurricane damage last year, CNN warmed to the idea that Nevis’s “elegant white beaches may now experience a deserved uptick in tourists.”

See the whole article here.

Typical classroom scene at MUA

Medicine has historically been a male profession—for years most medical schools would not seriously consider women applicants. That’s been steadily changing since the 1970s and 2017 marks a landmark in the drive to gender parity: among this year’s beginning medical students, women outnumbered men for the first time.

According to the 2017 report on applicants, matriculants, and enrollment by the Association of American Medical Colleges, women made up 50.7% of incoming medical students compared with 49.8% in 2016. Viewed over two years, the number of women entering medical school rose by 9.6%.

Read more about the 2017 class of medical students here

Medical University of the Americas holds its annual Research Day on Saturday Feb. 10, 2018. Twelve students/faculty so far have submitted abstracts outlining their research. Meanwhile, the Research Day committee has shared the agenda: Poster session presentation, followed by oral presentations, and concluding with the awards ceremony for “Best Posters” and “Best Presentations.” Research topics range from speech pathology to wound and tissue repair. Should be a fascinating day and we will be sure to share the winners, and their posters. Stay tuned!

A recent article on Standardized Patient (SP) programs on the Association of American Medical Colleges website—Standardized Patients Teach Skills and Empathy—notes  that SPs are now “an integral component of our medical education system” playing a role both in the training of medical students and in licensure: the clinical skills component of the USMLE involves seeing a series of SPs over several hours. Read the full article here.

While beginning medical students once gained their first clinical experiences by practicing on their fellow classmates now leading medical schools, including MUA, have established formal SP programs in which individuals recruited from the local community are trained to act as real patients, simulating a set of symptoms or problems. Ask a student at Medical University of the Americas about the most memorable experiences of their first semesters and many will point to the classes involving SPs.

The SP program at MUA takes place in the school’s clinical training facility. It typically starts with students standing at the door of an examination room and reading a brief case report identifying the SP’s name, age, gender and chief complaint and listing a set of specific tasks that must be completed, such as establishing rapport and gathering a medical history. Then, on cue, the student heads inside.

Everything about the experience is “standardized”—the SPs are specifically training to present the same symptoms to each student and the students must complete their assigned tasks within a set period of time. The sessions are captured on video. Afterwards, students write up a note detailing the visit, which is carefully scrutinized by MUA faculty. The SPs also complete an evaluation of each student.

It is important learning for MUA medical students, and will be part of the clinical skills testing that they will undertake later in their medical school training.

Getting into medical school has always been a challenge. But there is growing data to suggest that it is more difficult than ever.

While class sizes at U.S. medical schools have grown in recent years—and new schools have opened—it has not been enough to keep pace with the increase in the number of applicants.

According to a recent US News and World Report (citing data from the Association of American Medical Colleges--AAMC) between 2006 and 2016, the number of applicants to U.S. medical schools increased by more than 35 percent, rising from 39,108 to 53,042.

The competition is particularly strong in primary care programs: the average number of applicants at the top 10 primary care programs more than doubled between 2006 and 2016: from 3,273 applicants for the class entering in 2006 to 7,175 applicants for the class entering in 2016. Because available seats did not grow by nearly that amount, the acceptance rate fell from 8.8 percent to 4.6 percent.

There are not only more people seeking to become physicians, each applicant is applying to more schools: the typical applicant in 2016-17 sent in 16 applications resulting in a whopping 830,016 submissions.

While the AAMC data is for U.S. schools, the situation in Canada is similar.

The increasingly intense competition for medical school seats at allopathic institutions is a key reason why a few select international schools such as Medical University of the Americas, which have secured the full set of US approvals and accreditations (and are approved to participate in U.S. Federal Student Aid program) are an attractive option.

On Saturday mornings, members of the MUA Black Students Association tutor students from the nearby St. James Primary School on Nevis. This Fall, the BSA took its involvement to a new level, organizing a drive for books and supplies for the five classroom school.

Nevis Television was on hand when Leaders of the BSA Gayane Balasanyan and Bobby Birhiray presented the materials to Kevin Barrett, Permanent Secretary of the Nevis Ministry of Education.

See the newscast—the segment on the BSA school drive starts at 2.40

https://www.facebook.com/nevistelevision/videos/2088365287844059/

Students in the Fall 2017 semester at MUA took a moment for the camera after the White Coat ceremony.

Canadian students have long been a vibrant and important part of MUA’s academic community. MUA also recognizes that a medical school education is a significant economic commitment. In support of this need, MUA is pleased to offer to qualifying candidates the Canadian Achievement Scholarship.

Starting with the January 2018 semester, Canadian applicants can apply for the scholarship which is worth up to US $12,500.

To learn more, contact the Scholarship Committee at scholarship@mua.edu
Additional details can be found at www.mua.edu/canadian-achievement-scholarship